Netflix, Warner Bros. say Whitney Houston movie wasn't yanked for profit

By: Chenda Ngak
Topics: Tech Talk

A poster for the Kevin Costner-Whitney Houston romantic drama "The Bodyguard" (1992).

(Credit: Warner Brothers)

(CBS) - Rumors that Warner Bros. yanked the 1992 film "The Bodyguard" from Netflix streaming following Whitney Houston's death are unfounded. The film, which co-stars Kevin Costner, was Houston's biggest box-office hit.

The real story isn't as quite as nefarious as originally thought. Netflix lost the streaming rights to "The Bodyguard" in 2011. As of Jan. 1, 2012, the film has only been available as a Netflix DVD rental.

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The allegations made by web video host Dan McDermott were that Warner Bros. pulled Netflix's streaming rights to boost DVD sales. After McDermott's post on Google+ Monday, the rumor went viral on the websites Tech Meme and Reddit.

McDermott claimed that a Netflix representative confirmed his theory over why the film was not available through streaming and posted this statement on Google+.

"Okay Dan, I just went and talked to my main supervisor as to why the movie had been pulled and the reason it was pulled was the production company pulled the streaming rights from us because all the publicity after Whitney Houston's passing there was an opportunity to make really a very large amount of money on the DVD sales of her movies. So they're going to pull all the streaming titles we have of Whitney Houston so they can make more money off the DVD sales of her movies."

McDermott later admitted he made a mistake and apologized for his claims.

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by metomjr February 22, 2012 8:40 PM EST: Help me out here. The headline says "Whitney Houston film not pulled from Netflix" yet the article seems to confirm that it was. Netflix pulled the streaming version, so it indeed would seem that the film was pulled from at least one avenue of distribution.; Reply to this comment


by robert_holt February 21, 2012 3:15 PM EST: Whitney Houston had a stellar career and brought a lot of joy to the world but unnecessarily paid a terrible price for it. Perhaps she should have stuck with her early idea to be a teacher.; Reply to this comment